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Updates to the 245

Matt86

New member
Joined
Nov 24, 2012
Location
Woodstock, GA
Finally got the newly acquired 245 in the garage. First task was to bring that 27 year old paint back to life. The car had pretty much been garage-less for the past 15 years as the previous owner just let it sit at his cabin.

After many hours of buffing, polishing, scraping up tree sap, pressure washing years of old pollen, and a pound of wax later...the car looks much better. At the same time I swapped in a nice set of 1993 head lights and corner lights, the adhara wheels from my old 940
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I removed the roof rack while buffing the roof...I love the look of the slick-top. So down the road, I'll eventually pony up the cash to have the holes filled on and repainted. The chrome roof rack looks a little too Wagon Queen Family Truckster to me. New tail lights should be here Monday.

The biggest cleanup was under the hood. The underside of the hood was black, and the inner fenders were covered with decades of dust, dirt and grime. Also did the timing belt and seals since they were due in about 5k.
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Still on the list:
Front and rear suspension refresh. Everything on this car is original-true test to old world Volvo quality, unlike the later WWD off spring I also own.
 
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Thank you for the positive comments. The car is coming along nicely and I actually enjoy this car the most of my fleet.

Installed my new tail light assemblies. Nice to have properly working brake lights for the first time since I bought it.
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Very nice, what is it a 1989? Just missed the flush mount glass, but at least you missed the wiring issues!

You have done well by this car, too bad more people don't put this kind of effort into their RWD Volvos!
 
Yep it's a 1989. Amazingly, it has the original windshield and it does not leak...yet...when that happens I'll have it replaced with the later style flush glass.

I need to start compiling a list for the suspension overhaul. This thing squats in the rear, and I use it as a wagon hauling all kinds of crap, so IPD overload springs are in store. Then I'll do something about the interior, and maybe get the A/C working again.
 
And in to 2017, more 'updates' to the 245, which has quickly become the favorite of my fleet:

Cluster upgrade, with tachometer and mini clock.
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New windshield, no more wet feet!
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Steelies back on since the Adharas had crappy tires.
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But these will be going on soon:
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Other repairs include:
Lower control arm bushings, inner and outer tie rods, all four belts, rear Bilstein shocks, and that's pretty much it as far as repairs go for the past 6 months. Easily the most "cheapest" to maintain and operate out of all my cars.

Still to address: Remove the wagon queen family truckster roof rack, finish the suspension repairs and upgrades, and tackle the hodge podge mismatched junkyard festival interior.
 
Looks nice... But, yeah, that rack has to go...



Interior-wise, could always do what I've been doing. Converted the above depicted car to black leather...

-J
 
Thank you. I've slowly been collecting black interior parts. I've got a complete, crack free dash from a 1993, but it's from an airbag car so the driver side lower area is different and will require some modifications to make it look stock in a 1989. The hardest part is finding everything else, especially the black door cards with manual windows, black cloth rear wagon seat and all the rear trim in black.
 
Original windshield! Check under those carpets! You never know until you have a rust hole poking through the floor!

Not surprising in the least! The 240's are addicting, I have always had a new car, yet I have to have my 240!

These are the kinds of threads I like to see! Really going through the car and bringing it back to its former self, rather then the typical thread that talks of turbos and eventual death that get to 10 pages within a week and the get parted out! Keep at it!
 
Look's great. Always nice to see one in great shape, We have 4, 240 wagons, 2 are white,1 silver grey, and the blood red, V8, 3 door wagon. Keep up the good work and best of luck
 
Thank you for all the positive comments. I'm not really in to "modding" my cars, just keeping them stock with upgrades that could be had when the car was new, such as the Virgo wheels...etc. I'll probably put Ipd sway bars on it to help the handling and overload springs to help the hauling, but the engine with nearly 300K on it still runs absolutely perfect, no sense messing with it.

The carpet did a nice job soaking up all that water from the windshield, I'll yank it out and check to make sure there is no rot. I was more concerned about it leaking in to the jetronic module.

In the spring I'll shell out some money to have the roof rack holes filled and top resprayed.
 
You could 'cap' the holes with s/s hardware to seal them,that way you could always re mount the rack if you needed it. Filling the holes and respray $$$$$.
 
More progress:
Roof rack is gone, I used 283SD's idea and used stainless steel hardware and rubber grommets to fill the holes, I think it looks better then the black plug kit Ipd sells, I may paint over the bolt heads white to help them blend in, or leave them, they really don't bother me much. It was a pain removing the old rotten well nuts, and I had to clean and buff the roof to remove old residue from the rack.

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Looks so much better as a smooth top.

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For whatever reason, I can always reinstall the rack, but that wont be happening anytime soon.

Also replaced the tail gate harnesses, finally got a working rear lock actuator.
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